Navigating a Burda Style Pattern Sheet

until Project Maternity I'd never used one of these before... just simply because they scared the hell out of me... see exhibit A:

see? scary as hell! It's just a big old mess of lines! where do I start?!?ok.. . don't panic... what you've got here isn't just one big pattern sheet... it's 4 big pattern sheets! there's a big ol' 'cut here' line down the middle... cut there!.... then - to the iron!

So... lets use our common sense here - paper is known for it's flammable qualities so you're going to tun your iron down a tad and move quickly with it over the paper. you need to iron your pattern sheet or it's going to be really hard to trace it in a minute.

see? that's better huh?... hmm.. you still need to find the pattern pieces you need... and it's so hard in that mess of lines!... ok... look up your pattern in the magazine, you should find a diagram looks like this:

see? this one tells us that we're looking for the green pattern pieces on sheet A, numbers 21-15. We can see that the pattern is sized 36-44 also... you need to know which size you're cutting out. If you don't know already you need to find the page in your magazine that looks like this and find your measurements:

but it's still hard to find the pattern piece even if you know what you're looking for and what colour the lines are... but Burda have thought of that! yeyy!

see them numbers?... well say if I'm looking for green piece 24, if I look on a straight line up from the green 24 in the margin, I'll find a green 24 in the mess of lines.... and that green 24 will be next to a green line which should be the line for your pattern piece. I've foiund it's really helpful to trace around your pattern piece with your finger to make sure you've found the right one, and you know how it goes.

ok you need big tracing paper and some weights, I suggest tuna cans:

 see? then it's just tracing... which is fun :-) any 5 your old can trace! remember to copy any darts, grainlines etc... and another thing! Burda Style Magazine patterns don't come with a seam allowance! you need to add your own, and your hems. this is good because you can do this after any alterations you need to do to your pattern, linke when I did my full tummy adjustment:

anyhoo! I hope that helped! and BurdaStyle pattern sheets are no longer scary!!